The book considers the prehistory and the first years of the formation of the All-Union/ All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, provides brief biographies of those who stood at the origins of this organization, and created a data collection network. The rich statistics of the views of the country’s population on many of the most important events of the perestroika and postperestroika times seem valuable; it has not lost high importance. But if earlier these data were of interest to pollsters, journalists, politicians as well as politically active part of the population, now it is important for sociologists and historians, for everyone who is interested in the dynamics of public consciousness and effects of socio-economic reforms. In general, the book reveals to us many pages of the country’s modern history and sets us up for thinking about the future.